The Patriots want more draft picks because lately their draft picks have been better than the league average.

ProfootballFocus.com gives rarified marks for drafting Gronk and Hernandez, plus high marks for Vollmer and Brandon Spikes.Their "never hurts to find a solid contributor" grade was given for Mayo, Slater (what do you expect from a fifth rounder), Myron Pryor, Julian Edelman, Devin McCourty, Zoltan Mesko and Brandon Deaderick.Nobody was in their "You just drafted Tom Brady in the sixth round" category because they weren’t evaluating the 2000 draft class this year, but it’s nice when your scouting staff sets the NFL’s gold standard.

BB and the front office only traded up a few slots apiece to grab Chandler Jones and Dont'e Hightower.Last year’s draft class wasn’t evaluated in the same article, but both players were occasionally getting mentioned as outside shots for the profootballfocus "rookie of the year" race.

So, not too much can go wrong when the Pats trade down or when they trade out of 2013.Two draft picks will usually be better than one.

Note: the Globe's software has been agonizingly slow to post. Now I can't erase the duplicate message below, so I'll just edit it down to nothing.

i'll be a little ticked if either of their first three picks involve offense.

Glad you are not the GM! They need the best player available on either side of the ball . . . if they truely believe one of these wide receivers is a stud then they will take him. Next, they could use help on the offensive line (guard-center) and it is easier to predict future success of offensive linemen than most other positions.

I do think they sould use 2 or the 3 postions for defense but if someone is there that BB thinks will help the offense this year then he will and should grap him.

The only positions they should rule out for draft picks in the first three rounds are QB, TE, and punter. (unless Mallett gets traded for a second round pick or a third and sixth).